3 min readNew DelhiAug 4, 2026 08:16 PM IST
The Rajya Sabha passed the Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2026, by a voice vote on Tuesday afternoon, amid slogans from the Opposition. The Lok Sabha had cleared the Bill last week. The Upper House ran for less than an hour in the afternoon, before being adjourned for the day soon after the passage of the Bill.
The Bill, which has stricter provisions for delayed registrations, was introduced by MoS Home Nityanand Rai.
The Bill seeks to amend provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 to tighten the existing norms, mandating an order from a Judicial Magistrate (First Class) for birth and death registrations made more than two years after the event.
Under the existing law, registrations delayed by more than one year require an order from a district magistrate, sub-divisional magistrate, or an authorised executive magistrate, and the provision will continue to apply for delays of up to two years under the amended law.
Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge started the discussion by saying that the only way to see the House function normally is if the Prime Minister shows up, but he was cut short by the Deputy Chairperson Harivansh.
While the BJP members supported the Bill, some members such as BJD’s Santrupt Misra, United People’s Party Liberal member Pramod Boro, and Shiv Sena’s Jyoti Nagnath Waghmare objected to the provision of a judicial magistrate’s order for birth and death registrations. Boro said the judicial magistrates are already overburdened and this requirement will only lead to delays in registrations. He also said there was a disparity in the number of judicial magistrates across states.
Waghmare said the registration process should be made easier with camps and door-to-door activities, and penalties should be removed.
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BJP member Biswajit Sinha, who gave his maiden speech in the House, said that the Congress members were against the Bill because they were allowing Pakistani and Bangladeshi citizens to register in India.
The Opposition members, on the other hand, tried to again raise the issue of the Home Minister’s absence in the House. Congress’s Phoolan Devi Netam and DMK’s Tiruchi Siva said the Home Minister himself should have presented the Bill.
CPIM member V Sivadasan said the Bill was very important and there was a need for proper documentation. He went on to say that the cause of death should be accurately documented, such as malnutrition and paper leaks.
In his reply, Rai said there was a need for the members to understand the Bill. He said late registration, especially beyond two years, was being misused and therefore should happen on orders of a Judicial Magistrate. “This has been done so that ghosts do not continue to be voters for certain parties or babies born elsewhere are not registered here by some states,” he said.